Black Eyed Peas song inspired 'Fifty Shades'

ABS-CBN News

Will.i.am's song lyrics inspired the "Fifty Shades of Grey" book and its subsequent novels.

Author EL James has revealed the inspiration behind her raunchy writing is the Black Eyed Peas frontman.

The novelist told how she listened to his band while writing her worldwide bestsellers.

The 48-year-old woman told The Sun newspaper: "I have songs that I write sex to. One of them is the Black Eyed Peas' 'Sexy.' That is a very sexy song."

The track, from their 2003 album "Elephunk," features lyrics like: "For you I'm a fanatic, I'm an addict, your sexy antics turn me on like automatic."

James, who has raked in a fortune from her books, confessed her musical tastes at the launch of her "Fifty Shades" classical album.

She added that part of the books' success was that the covers are "discreet," allowing fans to read them anywhere.

She said: "I designed the covers because in my early 30s I read a lot of romantic fiction when I was slogging in and out of London on the Tube. But they had these horrible covers with women with clothes falling off.

"I hated that and I had to bend the covers back. So I designed really discrete covers so that no one would ever know it is salacious."

She added electronic books had also helped, explaining: "E-book readers have been very liberating for people because they can read whatever they like with no judgment."

Hungry

Meanwhile, will.i.am revealed that he often went hungry as a child.

The Black Eyed Peas star was forced to leave home at 5 a.m. every day because he went to a school in a "better" area of Los Angeles than where his family lived and the early start meant he often missed meals.

He said: "Sometimes I would miss breakfast and when you're on food stamps and lunch tickets, missing breakfast is not good for a kid."

The "I Gotta Feeling" hitmaker can understand why people trapped in poverty find it hard to get out because of the "psychological" influences around them.

He explained: "There's a family of influences that dictate behavior. In the ghetto, there's a liquor store, a cheque-cashing place and a motel. What that tells you psychologically is, get a cheque, cash it. Take a couple of steps. But some liquor and get drunk, go home and get kicked out of your house. And here's a place to sleep along the way.

"If you live in a good neighbourhood, you drive home and there's a bank. There's grocery stores and big houses -- but no motels. What that tells you psychologically is you protect your money and buy good things for your family to eat in your nice big house. So it's a different system."

As soon as he could afford it, will moved his entire family to a nicer area of Los Angeles.

He said: "I moved my mom, cousins, my uncles and my grandma. I moved them to the Valley to be near the rabbis. It was either the drive-bys or rabbis and I picked the rabbis." -- Bang Showbiz